Speech prepared for the House of Commons debate on the Conduct of Government Policy in Relation to the War in Iraq and its Aftermath

This speech was not delivered in the Chamber because time ran out and Clare Short was not called.

That this House believes that there should be a select Committee of seven honourable Members, being members of Her Majesty’s Privy Council, to review the way in which the responsibilities of Government were discharged in relation to Iraq and all matters relevant thereto, in the period leading up to military action in that country in March 2003 and its aftermath.

I strongly support the proposal that there should be an enquiry into Government policy towards the war in Iraq and its aftermath for a number of reasons.

Some of these are historical.  The truth matters and should be told.  It is widely believed that there was considerable deceit in both the US and the UK in order to get support for the invasion of Iraq.  This is leading to a growth in public cynicism and unhappiness in our armed forces as the remarks of the recently appointed Chief of the Defence Staff made very clear.  These questions must be scrutinised and the truth laid bare.  And if – as I believe to be the case – the record shows that there was considerable deceit, then we need to learn the lessons and ask how our political system could let this happen and how we can build more dependable decision making systems for the future.

The second reason we need an urgent enquiry is that we must ask why the planning for the aftermath of the invasion was so incompetent.  It is my view that the explanation was that the small group of people who manipulated the case for war persuaded themselves that the invasion would be welcomed by the Iraqi people and therefore dismissed the preparatory work that had been done in the State Department, the UN, DfID and other agencies and transferred responsibility to the Pentagon where no such preparation had been made.  It is this failure that explains the chaos, suffering and violence in Iraq today.  The lessons need to be learned in order to start to seek ways of improving the situation.

I understand of course the Government’s case supported by the Conservative front bench that these questions are historical and need not be scrutinised whilst our troops are in danger in Iraq.  This case would be reasonable if we had a realistic exit strategy.  The spin has changed recently from “we will stay the course for as long as it takes” to the suggestion that we might well be out within a year whilst of course staying the course.

But I am sorry to say that I do not believe it will be possible to hand over to the Iraqi authorities and leave and stable and orderly Iraq behind us within a year.  I am afraid this prospect is being played up to try to influence US electors in the lead up to the mid-term elections because the Iraq war is increasingly unpopular in the US and as we have seen UK statements tend to echo those of the US administration.

The case for an urgent enquiry into our Iraq policy now is that I am afraid we are still not being told the whole truth about current US and UK policy.

The reality is that the US has no intention of withdrawing from Iraq.  It is currently building massive, permanent bases in Iraq from which it intends to maintain “a substantial American force presence in the Gulf”.  The US wants a pro-US regime in Iraq which will accept the presence of US bases and wants to hand day to day policing and maintenance of order to Iraqi forces.  And the UK presumably supports this policy.  But I do not believe it to be realistic.  The insurgency in Iraq is likely to continue for as long as the US tries to maintain its presence in Iraq.  If this –widely shared – analysis is right, then there is no exit strategy and the killing and dying is likely to continue for many years to come.  And this will mean as – once again – the Chief of Defence Staff said recently that the situation in Iraq will continue to recruit people to a belief in violent resistance to US/UK policy in the Middle East which means growing disorder in the Middle East and a growth of terrorism world wide.

We need an urgent enquiry to clarify the real reasons for the invasion of Iraq in order to find an exit strategy and a better Middle East policy.  The reality is that the reason for the invasion was not WMD, or the brutality of Saddam Hussein’s regime or the desire to establish democracy in Iraq.  The real reason was spelled out in the Project for the New American Century’s report of September 2000 on “Rebuilding America’s Defences” which was supported by Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and Jeb Bush.  It made clear that they believed that the US should strengthen its position in the Gulf.  The documents state “while the unresolved conflict with Iraq provides the immediate justification, the need for a substantial American force presence in the Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein.”

We need an urgent enquiry to clarify why we are in Iraq and what is our objective in order to bring an end to the muddle and vagueness of policy intent which has been the hallmark of UK Iraq policy since 2002.  We need the enquiry urgently because we have no realistic exit strategy and face the prospect of continuing violence, instability and suffering in Iraq and growing disorder across the Middle East.  The situation in Iraq, the continuing and worsening suffering of the Palestinian people and the recent victory of Hezbollah over the Israeli Defence forces leaves the Middle East in an extremely unstable and dangerous condition.  This situation in a region that provides most of the world’s oil resources and is crucial to the health of the world economy is very troubling indeed and creates great dangers for the future.

When Government is making terrible foreign policy errors which endanger the future of the people of the Middle East and the lives of our troops, it is surely the job of the House of Commons to challenge the policy and seek to correct the errors.

Rt Hon Clare Short MP